Killing the 'kill switch'

Sens. Joe Lieberman, Tom Carper and Susan Collins introduced a cybersecurity reform bill that explicitly prohibits the president from shutting down the Internet.

The Cybersecurity Freedom Act of 2011, introduced late Thursday, is nearly identical to the legislation introduced last year by the trio, except for two changes.

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First, it adds language explicitly stating the president can't shut down the Internet. Second, it includes language permitting the owners of assets deemed critical infrastructure by the federal government — and therefore subject to additional Department of Homeland Security regulations — to appeal that decision in a federal court.

Controversy surrounding the bill’s original language — which gave the president vague authority to disrupt the Internet in the event of a national crisis — spurred the introduction, noted Lieberman and Collins.

“We want to clear the air once and for all,” said Lieberman. “There is no so-called ‘kill switch’ in our legislation because the very notion is antithetical to our goal of providing precise and targeted authorities to the president."

Collins said they “included explicit language prohibiting the president from doing what President [Hosni] Mubarak did” in Egypt.

“Our bill contains protections to prevent the president from denying Americans access to the Internet — even as it provides clear and unambiguous direction to ensure that those most critical systems and assets that rely on the Internet are protected,” said Collins.

Killing the “kill switch” is a positive step, said Internet Security Alliance President Larry Clinton late Thursday.

“The whole ‘kill switch’ debate has the potential to undermine all the other stuff people are trying to do in various bills,” he said. Lieberman’s cybersecurity bill last year did not have a “kill switch” and, if anything, reduced presidential authority as it exists under Section 706 of the Communications Act, he said. “The whole idea is really an unfortunate distraction.”

An industry lobbyist said the bill is just a starting point for final legislation. For example, the Senate Commerce Committee is working on supply-chain management language and will present it to the Homeland Security Committee in a month, the source said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is working on data breach text to incorporate in the bill, the lobbyist added.